Orchestra to accompany Kubrick's 2001

An orchestra and 60 singers will accompany screenings of Stanley Kubrick's landmark movie 2001: A Space Odyssey at the next Adelaide Festival.

"With over 150 people on stage including full orchestra, this is a spectacular evening of outstanding music accompanied by a screening of Kubrick's best film," said the festival's artistic director David Sefton.

British conductor Robert Ziegler will lead the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Chamber Singers in performing the soundtrack at the two screenings at Adelaide's Festival Theatre on March 8 and 9.

Mr Sefton, who first saw the project two years ago at London's Southbank Centre, said 96 musicians and 60 voices would be on stage.

He described the movie as "one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, celebrated for its technological realism, Oscar-winning special effects and its bold use of classical music".